Quarry, Ardennes - a charcoal drawing

 

Last week we (my husband and me) had a short vacation in The Ardennes and we planned some nice walks, some shopping and I planned some drawing and painting moments. The weather was great, in fact too warm for the time of the year, but great for our walks.

Very close to our vacation home was the first planned walk and we went there directly from the house - for the other walks we had to drive several kilometres to reach the starting point. This walk passed by some nice views, mostly of the river Amblève but we also passe by a small quarry, probably of the slate that was mined in that area.

This small quarry inspired me to make a reference picture and experiment with the composition in a charcoal drawing. I selected a nice area with some difference in colour and texture in the stone and some colour accents by the small birch trees that grow between the stones.

By choosing this composition I tried to apply the lessons I learned during my paining vacation last summer: fill the whole paper with your subject, don't leave room for ground or sky (if possible) and look at the shadows to define the shapes. 

The stones of the quarry alone would give only diagonal lines and would need a lot of explaining to those that would only see the drawing, so for the vertical lines I added some of the trees and crawling plants that grow on these rocks and stones using my pencils. The pencil colours do not stand out very much, as they are placed on the charcoal background.

Shortly after finishing this drawing I really thought that I had better left out the trees and plants, but after looking at the drawing several times, I started to like it much more as it is now. The touches of (autumn) colour make the drawing 'feel' how it was at that spot, dark stones and rocks, but not sombre because of the life that is represented by the trees and plants.

The information about the materials I have used, the size of this drawing and its availability can all be found in my Tumblr blog.

Please contact me if you are interested in my work.